HOLLYWOOD RAVES, WHILE CASTRO DIGS GRAVES
Exclusive: Marisa Martin blasts celebs for ignoring Cuba's persecuted
artists
MARISA MARTIN
Fidel Castro, Hollywood's favorite living dictator, and his li'l bro
Raul arrested more than 360 political prisoners in the first 13 days of
May alone. Perhaps Kings Castro I and II are just trying to balance out
the numbers of American tourists and fawning movie producers arriving
daily (such as Steven Speilberg, who hates Nazis but will cuddle a less
potent version in exchange for favors in Havana).
The glitterati apparently just ignore the thousands of lost and
forgotten political prisoners while they gush over Cuban health care.
They pay little heed to the little people that seem to terrify the
Castro brothers, such as book-wielding librarians, church attendees,
artists of all mediums and anyone generally discontent or loudly unhappy.
Dissident and rapper Angel Yunier Remón Arzuaga is one of those
languishing in Cuba's jails. Known in Cuba as "el Critico del Arte" (the
"Art Critic") or just or el Critico, he is half the duo Los Hijos Que
Nadie Quiso ("The Unwanted Children"), based in the city of Bayamo.
Remón Arzuaga was arrested after his unflattering lyrics caught the
attention of communist overlords.
"Welcome to Bayamo. … Criticizing has become suicide; I get burned and I
don't ask for help; I will criticize without mercy; I fight and I know
the consequences. Bayamo, this is my trench; I don't look outside, my
family is here inside" – "Bayamo" by Los Hijos Que Nadie Quiso
"El Critico" was the object of a neighborhood celebration – against him
– and thoughtfully organized by the state at his home on March 26, 2013.
Responding with verbal defiance brought him tear gas and an arrest, even
though he was the one attacked and injured.
After more than a year, Remón Arzuaga has still not been formally
charged, yet the regime seeks an eight-year sentence against him.
As a guest of the state, the young father almost died from cholera and a
long hunger strike where he demanded his rights. His health deteriorated
drastically due to terrible conditions in Cuban prisons, which routinely
include torture and beatings.
While he could barely speak, Remón Arzuaga managed to get his message
across to his wife Yudisbel Roseyo Mojena that it's either "freedon or
death" for him. He is truly a Cuban version of Patrick Henry with a
rapper's scattered but moving speech.
Roseyo Mojena suffers with him as she cares for their infant alone and
pleads her husband's case to the world. An extraordinary young woman in
her own right, she vows to continue "on the streets" in support of his
struggle. Defying authorities as a young member of the "Ladies in
White," Roseyo Mojena engages in terrifically subversive things such as
walking in a group to mass and celebrating Mother's Day. In the People's
Paradise of Cuba, people doing such things are just asking for trouble.
Perhaps both the Marx brothers are burgeoning into a little senility in
their fears. It's a bad combination – unchecked monomania and paranoia,
with an entire movie industry dedicated to fulfilling their fantasies
and shoring up their creds.
Remón Arzuaga is an activist member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, a
pro-freedom organization. Freedom is not something Castro et.al. are
particularly fond of, and many members have been hounded and imprisoned.
Threatening to suspend the rapper's right to one weekly phone call, the
authorities are infuriated that he dared reveal conditions at the jail
through an audio message via the Patriotic Union of Cuba and YouTube.
An eyewitness to abuse, Remón Arzuaga described cruel abuse of
prisoners. One tragic victim, Rogelio Ovidio, was beat by his jailers
and refused medical assistance after they informed him he could possibly
be HIV positive.
Remón Arzuaga found Ovidio's body last July and described the horrific
scene in his secret audio message: "I saw his body.… His head was
broken, his right arm was injured and his back was full of bruises. I
found him at two in the morning, and he had already hung himself. … I
didn't know he was dead right away because he was being held in a dark
cell. I saw his silhouette, and I thought he was just sitting down."
Cuba's prisoners die from easily treatable conditions such as cholera
and infections from beatings. Remón Arzuaga complained of "horrible food
regiments and very poor hygienic conditions" in hospitals more like
concentration camps for sick prisoners.
The rapper also exposed mistreatment of friend and fellow dissident
Alexander Otero, who was viciously beaten and left with facial
paralysis, serious arm injuries and is unable to even speak. Like the
prisoners of the Soviet system, Otero and other political prisoners are
denied treatment solely because of their opinions. In another shout out
to the Gulag, Cuba's got state prison snitches too, and 'El Critico' has
been honored to have one all to himself.
Roseyo Mojena was also threatened over publicizing her husband's prison
abuse, and they would really like to shut her up. It's possible even
American movie stars may have limits to how much injustice they can
stomach – but the majority haven't discovered them yet.
The young mother was forced to sit hours in a sun-seared bus, denied
communication with her husband, assaulted and their home was even stoned
– Neanderthal police tactics.
Roseyo Mojena passionately charged, "They are trying to change his
ideas, but they will not succeed because he is firm, now more than ever."
Tyrants always demand quiet, subservient victims, and they particularly
dislike Cuba's "Women in White," who are mostly relatives and friends of
jailed or murdered dissidents. I suspect it's because vestigial remnants
of conscience remain even in Raul Castro and his allies. How to run a
proper police state if they allow a little remorse to dilute their many
sins?
From his statement, the dissident rapper urged young Cubans to stand up
"in defense of our rights" and to fight for a free and democratic Cuba –
frightening words to the Castros and a likely explanation for the
astronomical increase in politically motivated arrests at the moment.
According to the Hablemos News agency, there were at least 884 political
arrests in April alone. That's a lot of people for a small nation.
Recent activities of the securitate include May 8 arrests of 18
activists to keep them from laying flowers at the grave of murdered
political prisoner Juan Wilfredo Soto. A few days later 90 of the Damas
de Blanco, or "Ladies in White," were arrested for daring to observe
Mother's Day in their accusatory white dresses.
But what possesses American stars and celebrities to adoration of the
camouflaged one? The list of Castro proselytes and their pilgrimaging
from Los Angeles is sickening.
According to a slew of sources, Jack Nicholson publicly said the
following, which I fail to find an adjective for as it surpasses
"moronic" in superlatives in English: "Fidel Castro is a genius! We
spoke about everything. Castro is a humanist. Cuba is simply a paradise!"
Similarly Oliver Stone lauded Castro as "selfless and moral, one of the
world's wisest men."
In a sickening amen chorus the following have officially added their
celebrity approvals over the years: Robert Redford, Spike Lee, Sidney
Pollack, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Ed Asner, Shirley MacLaine,
Alanis Morissette, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chevy Chase, Jack Nicholson, Kate
Moss, Naomi Campbell, Saul Landau and Kevin Costner.
Were they being tortured? Drugged? Terribly misquoted? If not, Joseph
McCarthy should raise from the dead just to puke on them all.
Dave Blount in 2010 had an interesting take on the astoundingly vile
statements so many of America's famed and dearest have made. He quotes
Cuban intelligence defector Delfin Fernandez on bizarrely inappropriate
praise heaped at the feet of such a non-deserving man.
Explaining that he was assigned to "bug" Cuban hotel rooms with audio
and video devices, Fernandez revealed "famous Americans" are priorities
for Castro's intelligence. Big surprise there.
"When the celebrity visitors arrived at the Hotels Nacional, Meliá
Habana and Meliá Cohiba, we already had their rooms completely bugged
with sophisticated taping equipment," Fernandez claimed. "But not just
the rooms, we'd also follow them," apparently watching for something to
leverage.
Wife of the jailed Cuban rapper Roseyo Mojena is reaching out to
America's music industry, asking them to stand by her husband "El
Critico," who was on the brink of death at the time.
"I would be grateful a million times over and thankful … if they could
stand with us and ask the Cuban government for his freedom," Roseyo
Mojena pled.
So far Cuban American singers Gloria Estefan and Albita Rodriguez have
gone at least to the effort of tweeting support. Cuban born
actress/singer Maria Conchita Alonso was busy recently picketing for
human rights in front of the White House on behalf of Venezuela, another
disaster.
But dissidents are gunning for the big-name rappers such as Jay Z and
his wife Beyonce, who the New York Post identified as Cuban partiers
with nothing to say in support of one of their own imprisoned musicians.
Meanwhile Stephen Spielberg is apparently still mesmerized by the "eight
most important hours of my life" he spent with Castro at dinner. I could
safely bet they weren't spent negotiating the end of political
repression in Cuba. More likely a deal for using the Hotel Nacional de
Cuba and cheap security for an upcoming film.
Use hashtag #FreeElCritico on Twitter in solidarity of the jailed rapper.
Sources: www.cubademocraciayvida.org,
www.pedazosdelaislaen.wordpress.com, TranslatingCuba.com, RightWingNews.com.
Source: Hollywood raves, while Castro digs graves -
http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/hollywood-raves-while-castro-digs-graves/
No comments:
Post a Comment